Refractory materials are conventionally used as catalysts and catalyst supports. Such materials, however, suffer the disadvantage of producing fines when the catalyst is subjected to normal handling operations. The fines present several problems in that they complicate the catalyst activation procedures, feed erratically to the reactor, and result in the production of polymer fines when the catalyst is used for polymerization. This problem is particularly acute in supports used for olefin polymerization catalysts which generally cannot be subjected to treatments involving the use of water to reduce fines.
One solution to the problem of catalyst fines is to agglomerate catalyst or catalyst support particles, and then grind and separate the agglomerated material into particles having the desired particle size. A problem with this procedure is the loss of substantial quantities of the agglomerated material as fines during the grinding and separation process. What is needed, therefore, is a particulation process which gives catalytic material with controlled particle size without producing excessive amounts of fine catalyst or catalyst support particles as a result of the particulation process.